Why read?

The power of reading to child is immeasurable. It is a journey of delight, laughter, heartbreak, adventure, triumph and all the mishaps in between. The connective tissue between the thoughts and feelings, the intellect, and the soul, are all pulled together in the singular act of opening a book and taking a stroll through someone’s life, someone’s imagination.

The habit of reading is powerful. Consider these statistics:

68% of America’s fourth graders do not read at a proficient level

One out of six children who do not read at age level by the end of third grade will not graduate from high school

61% of low-income families have no age-appropriate books in their homes

Fewer than half (48%) of young children in the U.S. are read to daily. The percentage of children read to daily drops even lower (to 36%) among low-income families, whose children face the highest risk of literacy problems.

Even among high-income families, however, more than two out of every five children are not read to daily.

Children in low-income families have access to fewer reading materials than children of middle- and upper-income families (Lindsay, 2010; Krashen, 2012).

How do we combat this discouraging picture? Make reading a part of our daily lives, make it as important as eating well, and exercising daily. We must feed the intellectual development of our children and build a lifelong love of learning. Reading changes everything.